Sarina Wiegman confirms Keira Walsh boost but plays coy on England formation

Lionesses head coach Sarina Wiegman says Kiera Walsh is in line to be involved in England’s last-16 clash with Nigeria but played coy on whether she will stick with a back three.

There were concerns the Barcelona midfielder would not play again at the Women’s World Cup after being forced off against Denmark with a knee problem, raising fears she had become the latest high-profile England player to suffer an ACL injury.

But a scan a few days later allayed those fears and she returned to team training on Sunday before joining the squad for their flight to Brisbane to take on Nigeria.

While Wiegman – who is the last female coach left in the tournament – was guarded over her starting XI for Monday’s game, she has hinted that Walsh is likely to be back in the matchday squad and has overcome her injury issue.

Asked for an update on the 26-year-old after her return to training, Wiegman said at her pre-match press conference: ‘She’s doing well. She started her rehab straight after we knew what was going on.

‘She has been on the pitch, she has been training today, now we are waiting to see how she recovered from that training session and if she does well then she is available for tomorrow.’

Asked what the actual problem was, Wiegman continued: ‘I can only say that it wasn’t a ligament injury and that we could start recovery, and that’s all I can say about it.

‘Of course that moment in the game against Denmark was a very hard moment, not good and not nice to see.

‘But after the assessment we knew what was going on, but we also said not to take any assumptions and just wait until a proper assessment has been done. That’s what we did and then we got the green light to get her rehab started.

‘The first moment, as we all could see when she tried to make a sliding tackle, that was not a good moment and everyone was in shock of course also because everything that is going on about [ACL] injuries all the time. But then pretty quick, the day after, we noticed that things were not as bad as people thought.’

In the absence of Walsh, Wiegman switched to a back three and the side gave an excellent display against China, winning 6-1, though she was keeping tight-lipped on how the team will line up going forward.

Asked if Walsh’s return will see the Lionesses revert back to a back four, the head coach replied: ‘We have two options now, the way we played [at the start of the tournament] and what we did against China. We have taken that into consideration and you’ll see tomorrow what we do.’

On the threat posed by Nigeria, Wiegman added: ‘I think Nigeria have done very well this tournament. They were in a very hard group and we all saw that they did very well in that group.

‘They are a very athletic team, quick in transition but they also want to play. So we are aware of their strengths but what we’ve got to try to do is exploit their weaknesses.’

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